Later this year Deseret Chemical Depot (DCD) will begin the third and final phase of incinerating chemical weapons.

EG&G Defense Materials, Inc. General Manager Gary McCloskey told members of the Tooele County Local Emergency Planning team Wednesday that the company is in the process of converting equipment at the Chemical Agent Munitions Disposal System (CAMDS) facility in preparation for disposing over 6,000 tons of mustard nerve agent. EG&G is a private contractor which has conducted agent disposal since 1999.

"The last stockpile agent is mustard. We started operations by disposing of the GB and VX nerve agents which posed the greatest risk. We have been sampling containers of blister agent and should be ready to begin destroying mustard in the spring or summer. It will take five years to finish the mustard," McCloskey said.

After the mustard is gone the company will continue to operate for another two years as it cleans up and destroys equipment, but after that the fate of DCD is up to the Army and politicians, according to McCloskley.

The general manager said that there was big concern about GB and VX. He said weapons containing those agents were rockets which would have posed major trouble if they had launched during the operation.

In March of 2003, DCD completed the disposal of over 6,000 tons of GB Sarin Nerve Agent. And in June of this year the depot completed the destruction of over 1,300 tons of VX agent.

"The estimated risk has now been reduced by 99 percent," reads a press release from the U.S. Army Chemical Materials Agency.

"Mustard agent is still nasty. It is a big risk to those handling it, but there has only been one incident reported in the operations I have been involved with where someone was injured handling it," McCloskey said.

He said the only way those living downwind from the facility would be affected would be if there were a major fire which is an extremely unlikely scenario.

Deseret Chemical will hold two public meetings in an effort to educate residents about this third and final step in the depot's mission to destroy chemical weapons. A public meeting is scheduled for Wed., Feb. 1, at 6 p.m. at the Tooele Chemical Stockpile Outreach Office at 54 South Main Street in Tooele. Another public meeting is set for Feb. 15 at 6 p.m. at the same location.

The Tooele County Local Emergency Planning team includes members of law enforcement, fire department leaders, industry leaders and others. The group meets once a month at the county building to discuss developments associated with hazardous waste materials in Tooele County.

Mustard agent-filled munitions have been stored at DCD since the beginning of storage operations during World War II. The original stockpile of mustard agent was 46 percent of the original DCD stockpile, a sizable amount compared with GB (44 percent) and VX (10 percent).

e-mail:mwatson@tooeletranscript.com